Among the more prolific of the historic
collections is that of Ch. Alluaud in the "Territory of Assinie" in
July-August 1886 (Santschi, 1914b, Emery, 1892d). Brown (1976b)
believed this location is a coastal village (which can be found on
modern maps, and is shown on Map 8)
and the surrounding area near the border with Ghana.

Specific locations given by Bolton, in his generic revisions,
include Lamto and Toumodi for J. Lévieux (see below); Banco Forest (or
National Park, 30 km² of primary rain forest, some 8 km east of
Abidjan) and the ORSTOM research station (17 km west of Abidjan), and
Plantation Niecky (40 km west of Abidjan) for W.L. Brown (in
January-February 1963) and, with D.E. Brown, in January 1977). Another
Banco Forest collector is I. Löbl, who collected in (March) 1977, also
at Yapo Forest - Agboville (some 60 km north of Abidjan), Sassandra (a
coastal town, 10 km from Monogaga), Sangouine and Man (a western town,
on the eastern foothills of Mt. Nimba in Guinea, 7°30'N, 7°40'W) (e.g. Monomorium
invidium, and others in Bolton, 1983, 1987). Then there are
collections by W.L. and D.E. Brown at Anguédedou Forest; Nzi Noua,
north of Ndouci; and Sangrobo, in the S-P de Tiassalé (Bolton, 1981,
1983). W. H. Gotwald & R. Schaefer also collected at Lamto. Several
species were collected by Lukas Brader, who studied borer beetles of
coffee in the early 1960's (references in Entwistle, 1972), mostly at
Divo (March 1963; in rain forest, see Calyptomyrmex barak), with
Monomorium dolatu from Gagno.

Jean Lévieux has led a series
of studies of ants in the forest edge savannah and in the neighbouring
evergreen rain forest (commencing in 1962 and continuing until 1969-
(possibly interrupted) again in 1974 to 1978), but mainly on
ground-dwelling species (Lévieux, 1971, 1973, 1982, 1983b). The work
was based at two locations. One was the Lamto Field station of the
University of Abidjan, 200 km north-west of Abidjan (6°13'N-5°41'W),
and off the main highway 50 km south of Toumodi. A photograph of the
habitat was shown by Gotwald & Lévieux (1972), with the palm
Borassus ethiopum being the most common tree and the ground cover
being coarse grasses. The other was Ferkéssédougou, in the north of the
country (9°30'N-5°10'W). Lamto is interesting because it is a location
where the primarily coastal rainforest penetrates alongside the River
Bandama into the Guinea savannah (Delage-Darchen, 1972). Thus useful
comparisons could be made between the ant fauna of the two ecosystems.
Ferkéssédougou in contrast is in the much drier Sudan savannah, with a
pronounced dry season from November to May, and no more than 1100 mm
annual rainfall (Lévieux & Diomande, 1978).

Bernadette Delage-Darchen participated in the study of the ecology
of ants of herbaceous and arboreal strata in the savannah at Lamto
(Delage-Darchen, 1971); and described the biology and taxonomy of what
she believed to a new species Melissotarsus titubans (now
synonymised with Melissotarsus beccarii) (Delage-Darchen, 1972).

Tiemoko Diomande (1980) surveyed the terrestrial ants of Tai and
Téké Forests (near Anyama), and the Palmeraie de Lame, apparently in
1974-76, from information in Bolton (1980, 1983). Tai Game Reserve is
in the south-west of the country, between the Cavally and Sassandra
Rivers, east of the town of Tai. It consists of mainly primary rain
forest with a total area of 4250 km². Diomande also collaborated with
Lévieux in a study at Ferkéssédougou (in 1976?), primarily of Pachycondyla
sennaarensis, both being based at the Faculty of Science,
University of Abidjan (Lévieux & Diomande, 1978).

Several dacetine species were collected by V. Mahnert & J.-L.
Perret in October 1980, the locations including Adiopodoumé,
Bingerville (just east of Abidjan), Droplieu, Gregbeu, Issoneu, Man and
Mt. Tonkoui, Monogaga, Tai Forest (Bolton, 1983, 1987).

The Bossou chimpanzee project, a member of which, Tanya Humle, sent
me a number of specimens of Dorylus Driver Ants, worked on Mt
Nimba, both on the Guinea and Ivory Coast sides - see the linked page.